After being detained in early 2014 and formally charged that July, Uyghur intellectual Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life in prison for separatism in September 2014. The scholar and activist was known widely as a moderate working to foster dialogue between Uyghurs and Han in the troubled Xinjiang region—commentators noted that his moderation may have been what made him a target: “They don’t want moderate Uyghurs,” scholar Wang Lixiong said shortly after his